T.I.N.S.
He is about to head out for a few months at sea for something like ADSW. Paraphrased, his Reserve unit CO told him - I kid you not -
"Don't get your NWU dirty while at sea. They need to be clean to wear for your duty days when you get back."It was only a matter of time. Don't get a uniform dirty that was intentionally designed to get dirty.
Sailors belong on ships; ships belong at sea? Don't be silly.
Idiot commanders like this? Wow...who keeps putting them in positions of responsibility, when such a simple concept can't be grasped?
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense. I just blew $408 to get the full kit for just two pairs of NWU's, the Goretex, Liner, and nylon/lyrca mock turtleneck. It amounted to something close to $100 for just one NWU set. At those prices you really can't afford on some people's pay to get a set dirty.
ReplyDeleteSo, a quick question. Is TFU composed of actual, active duty sailors (officers and enlisted)? If so, where do they get these glorious ideas (and who approves them)??
ReplyDeletewhat next? troops who dont need to get dirty in the field?
ReplyDeleteEwok, No they'll just go back to the early 1960s (pre-Vietnam) tradition of having separate sets of uniforms for use in the field and use in garrison. This was one of the things I learned from four years at a military boarding school.
ReplyDeleteAnd to think that they allegedly did this to save people money.
ReplyDeleteIs this really a question of SELRES sailors figuring out how to use ship's laundry and get all their stuff back before they head home, or is the NWU becoming the "Not While Underway" uniform?
ReplyDeleteLet me guess, the new standard among the landlubbers is to have their NWU's starched and pressed....
Don't wash it to much either... It fades pretty quick.
ReplyDeleteLast NAVADMIN on it forbade the wearing of ballcaps and coveralls while in port. So, yes the NWU is the inport uniform.
Down here in MS, it is evident that uniform is only suitable for in the office wear. To light for winters, too heavy for summers, especially down here. Besides, it looks horrible. Oh well, USN, embracing the repeal of DADT before its time!
ReplyDeleteHTF do you string DADT with NWU's? Jack@ss
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure which plumbs the depths of our service's stupidity more: The "don't get your utilities dirty" mindset or the Uniform Board which has given us, over the years: The "San Diego Zoo Seal Trainer" uniform (Salt and Peppers), the Gestapo unform for office wear (all black with tie), the all-polyester at-sea khaki set (mandatory double knits), the "I wanna look like a Marine" unfiorm (Khaki shirt and black trousers) and other "WTF, do these people ever leave the Beltway?!?" moments. Sigh. I grew to appreciate the blue coveralls the 'shoes and sub-bubs wear, the cammi's for SeaBee's, SpecWar and others and the flight suit. Just what are we trying to digitally camoflage on a ship?.
ReplyDeleteWho didn't see this coming?
ReplyDeleteShould go back to the old WW2 jeans, blueshirt, and white hat. It's probably a lot cheaper, and then just declare that the first person to complain about a working uniform being dirty gets shot.
Oh yes... I had a flight suit, ball cap and spare pair of boots (all purchased out of pocket) set aside for inspections. Same with the other parts of the uniform. I learned that lesson right wuickly and, to my mind, it was one of the best investments I ever made. never failed a uniform inspection. In fact, I had the creases on the white shirt (double knit) sewn into place by some very talented Philipino seamtresses who had a shop in Brunswick.
ReplyDeleteIt's all in how you play the game.
Because the new Navy sea-cammo is teh ghey... natch! ;)
ReplyDeleteBest working uniform ehvvah, in this old airdale's view. I wore both the dungarees and the Dickies, and I got rid of the latter and bought dungarees out of pocket. Comfortable, easy to maintain and replace/repair, and wore like iron. Pluss, the name was stencilled, and crows were iron-on, so the only time you needed a needle and thread is if you had to replace a button or reinforce a seam.
ReplyDeleterelax, Anon. I think he was just saying that the new NWU is faaaaaaaaaaaaabulous
ReplyDeleteI work with Marines and laugh whenever they tell me "no no...these are my "office cammies."
ReplyDeleteCNO approves them, TFU is headed by a special CNO appointed Command Master Chief with inputs directly from MCPON.
ReplyDeleteCNO had a lot of input on this though, same with the Diet Marine E1-E6 office wear and the retro/new design khaki dress (which I love)
same people who passed nationalized healthcare. Your senators.
ReplyDeleteNew regs state Sailors will have 4 sets of NWUs. Hah! Not likely at these prices.
ReplyDeleteBecause the whole new Navy stance of Global Force for Good, the ghey Combat Smurf uniform is thilly and oh so Ab Fab. Un-twist your panties shipmate.
ReplyDeleteHow many minutes after ADM Roughead retires until the Navy shitcans the NWU?
ReplyDeleteHey, I can dream, can't I?
AW1. Now that's the Navy I remember. Did you also have the "tailor-made" dress blues with the dragons embroidered under the cuffs?
ReplyDeleteAndy, I think you're on to something. I went through all of the uniform combinations you list plus the "coat and tie uniform for all hands" and the jumper style working uniforms of the early '70s. It's funny but when all is said and done the USN always returns to "wash" khakis for officers and CPOs and dungarees for everyone else.
ReplyDeleteI predict that the NWU will become a footnote in history much like FADM King's "Grays".
ReplyDeleteTim, the problem here is that the brass want a uniform that looks good, not one that is functional. I agree, I would have been more than happy to go back to dungarees, but I didn't have a problem with the utilities, either. I'm glad I never had to wear the NWU.
ReplyDeleteHey Anon, who are you to call him or anyone else here a jackass?
ReplyDeleteAnon, it's a message board. Can't expect people to make sense. Of course DADT and uniforms are connected, it's all part of Obama's conspiracy to completely disarm the US. Don't you keep up with Fox News?
ReplyDeleteWhy yes, yes I did. Liberty Cuffs were still around and a lot of fellows had them. I had a waist back then that was smaller than my chest size. My dad showed me a trick that he had done to his dress blues, and I copied it. You take your bell bottoms and button them up, and then have someone adjust the laces in the back to where you want them. Then, you pull them off and take them like that to the tailors. The ladies there open up the side seams and put zippers in them, which face the inside and are hidden on the outside by a welt. Now you can just pull them on and pull up the zippers without having to deal with those 13 buttons.
ReplyDeleteThe other trick was to take a roll of dimes and put them into your neckerchief before rolling it up. Then, either sew them into place, or put a tight rubber band against each end. When you wear the neckerchief, the roll of dimes is hidden beneath the collar of the jumper. However, if you are in a tight spot, you can grab the square knot and pull the thing up over your head, and have an excellent blackjack to hand.
Nothing quite says "lights out" like a roll of dimes to the side of the head. :)
What an a55. This ain't a message board - it a blog. Oh, and you do know that I support homosexuals serving openly...right?
ReplyDelete+1 to the guy that said the cammies are gone as soon as ADM Roughead retires. Maybe the Marine-wannabees and Khaki's too.
ReplyDeleteI hate to admit it, but the Coast Guard got this one right, and we got it wrong. Just adopt their dark blue BDU's and get it over with. Either that, or just make blue coveralls the issue working uniform.
AW1, That's good to hear. I'd forgotten about the zippers. I learned the trick about the roll of dimes and the neckerchief at the Naval Academy although there it was primarily used to make the neckerchief look better and keep it from sliding. That uniform was primarily worn by Plebes during the summer and was never worn off the Academy grounds.
ReplyDeleteDungarees and a chambray shirt is the working uniform of the US NAVY, a Navy that by the end of WWII, went where it wanted, and did what it wanted, a Navu with an unprecedented string of victories, and missions successfully carried out. A Sailor wearing that uniform is sending the message that the USN is here, you have just lost. How can a uniform possibly look better than one that says that?
ReplyDeleteI guess the problem is people in command that want a uniform that they think looks cool, rather than one that is comfortable, durable, and sends a message of historical linkage to our past, and pride in being Sailors of the UNITED STATES NAVY.
Don't confuse him with the things of reality, Phib. You will break his concentration....
ReplyDeleteI overheard a coversation a couple weeks back outside the One-Stop store across the street from BIW. Some of the Navy guys were there waiting for a cab, and one of them made a remark that what he hated most about the new sea-canmmo NWU is that he got mistaken for a member of the Maine State Police SWAT Team.
ReplyDeleteI nearly bit through my lip to keep from saying something, but the kid (a PO2) was serious.
Respects,
Wouldn't be the first time a service Chief's favorite togs were unceremoniously dumped immediately upon his departure. Skeletor McPeak, call your office, there are some spare bus driver uniforms ready at the dry cleaners.
ReplyDeleteWell, since this is going downhill and LT B mentioned smurfs, I've always wondered, what color do smurfs turn when they're choked?
ReplyDeleteTim,
ReplyDeleteI wore crackerjacks from 86 to 91. Roll of dimes were still de'rigeur. As was the inspection dungarees and a both sets of whites. Those things were dirtmagnets. I had buttons sewed on the marine bib and velcro inside. My dress whites I hated the bellbottoms (didn't on the blues) so I had them taken in a bit. Noone ever noticed. Ahhh, the good old days. That wool in the blues sure had a distinct feeling.
Company commander, BM1, in boot camp in 1966 made it clear we were to be standard USN issue dirty dungaree sailors. It all fit in one bag, unlike todays offerrrings. Yeah they needed improvement but you knoew what you were looking at when you saw one of us. No cammo envy here, or playing dress up to look like ??? How long before the term "Bluejacket" becomes obscure as to meaning?
ReplyDeleteKhakis & dungarees, like fall follows summer. NWU - out, and the stormtrooper meets marine has got to go too. Shame on the leadership d'bags that foisted this on some good Sailors and are helping kill a Navy.
ReplyDelete//
BT
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Yeah it was another bad day at work in an industry the king d'bag has taken over.
AW1, Very few of the sailors I've seen wearing them at Sub Base Bangor would ever be mistaken for anybody's SWAT Team.
ReplyDeleteI would say that as well. The difference here is that the Maine State Police have a cammo uniform where the blue shades are almost identical to that of the new NWU.
ReplyDeleteClaudia,
ReplyDeleteThe thing I didn't like about whites was that the Mess Cooks always seemed to know ahead of time when we were supposed to wear them, and would serve up large helpings of Chicken Adobo or Spaghetti, etc. :)
cdrs, if this isn't a message board, you might want to relabel the little part on the right that says "message boards" over the updates of "messages" in your comments sections. You might want to make it say "comments" if you feel so strongly about it that you'd call someone an a55.
ReplyDeleteThe comment wasn't directed at you, it was directed at the fool that uses uniform policy as an excuse to blame gay people for something, and it speaks to a conspiratorial outlook on life. I believe that needs to be called out, so I did by taking it to the logical extreme. DADT has nothing to do with uniform policy. Doesn't everyone want to blend in with the water when they fall overboard? Gotta love functional cammies.
I just saw Losers. The mercenaries guarding the port facility were all wearing the Angry Smurf Aquaflage. Pathetic.
ReplyDeleteI don't blame gay people. Tacos or sausages have nothing to do with the uniform. The problem is the ill begotten silliness coming out of DC when the ships are broken, manning is hosed, we have more admirals than ships, coed Navy stuff is not what they say it is in DC and is known by all who deploy, double standards abound, diversity is lowering standards just to count skin color rather than recruiting the best and brightest we can and now we are going to add, yet another social experiment to make others feel good about themselves. So, yes ANOTHER policy change that does fu** all to make us a better fighting force.
ReplyDeleteDiversity, females at sea and gays will make us a better fighting force? Show me the metrics.
Yeah looks like you weren't making a connection between DADT and uniforms.
ReplyDelete"<span><span>LT B</span> </span>
<span><span>Down here in MS, it is evident that uniform is only suitable for in the office wear. To light for winters, too heavy for summers, especially down here. Besides, it looks horrible. Oh well, USN, embracing the repeal of DADT before its time! "</span></span>